Choose Your Scaffolding Adventure: urbancanvas Design Competition

One of the eight urbancanvas finalists: "My Urban Sky," by Jen Magathan

New York City's urbancanvas Design Competition is aiming to dress up dress up the otherwise bland fixtures of  construction sites - sidewalk sheds, construction fencing, scaffolding and protective netting - in a temporary artsy new skin. The contest is being held by the departments of Buildings and Cultural Affairs in an effort to create a positive, attractive, and interesting additions to New York City's urban environment while buildings are under construction. The hope is to enhance the public realm with artwork that is broadly accessible, created in a flexible system that can be adapted to different scale buildings in different settings.

Of the 700-plus artists who registered for the competition, eight finalists were selected by a jury this summer. Today the finalists were announced and are currently up for public vote until October 1. The four artists that get the most votes will not only see their designs beautifying New York City's construction sites but will receive $7500 from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. And, of course, we the people get something to enliven the otherwise unattractive city-owned buildings under construction.

View and vote for the designs here.